


Go With It

by whenyoudesertme



Category: Arashi (Band), Japanese Actor RPF, Johnny's Entertainment
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Spies & Secret Agents, Community: ninoexchange, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:15:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25028359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whenyoudesertme/pseuds/whenyoudesertme
Summary: Secret agent Nino is on a mission to find information, but he finds a saucy stranger instead.
Relationships: Ninomiya Kazunari/Ohno Satoshi
Comments: 8
Kudos: 18
Collections: Ninomiya Exchange





	Go With It

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rainny_days](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainny_days/gifts).



> "Genre-appropriate mentions of terrorism/violence but no graphic detail. Thank you to ink_letters for the fun ideas in your sign-up! Thank you to Nino Mod for ten amazing years! Thank you to my beta who loves me very very much!"
> 
> Original header, title and all, written by kino, who also beta-read this. Thank you, kinoface!! Written for ninoex 2020 and originally posted [here](https://ninoexchange.dreamwidth.org/116772.html). Available on my dw comm [here](https://itakara.dreamwidth.org/30328.html).

Nino was loitering outside a bakery in Tokyo Station when he spotted Ohno on the other side of the walkway, loitering similarly by the piled-high carts of a bookstore. Of course, Nino didn't know his name was Ohno at that point, or anything about him at all except for his general appearance (about Nino's size and age, wearing jeans and a button-down shirt, slouching and fidgety in a way Nino associated more with sulky teenagers) and the way he was blatantly staring at Nino.

There were bigger things on Nino's mind right then than the oddball across the way. He was here staking out this connection to the Yamanote Line because his agency had intel that the nationalist group they'd been tracking for months was planning to move the materials for some sort of biological weapon in the next couple of days. He had to be vigilant for signs of movement while not giving away his own standing as anything other than one of the milling civilians constantly swarming through.

On the other hand, Nino was good at multitasking, and the oddball across the way was kind of cute. Nino gave him a wink just to be saucy.

The stranger didn't so much as twitch in response. His soft mouth stayed soft, his sleepy eyes stayed sleepy, and his foot scuffed the floor in the same lazy rhythm as before. Nino reconsidered: perhaps it wasn't blatant staring, perhaps this person was just an expert at zoning out and happened to be doing it while pointed toward Nino.

Nino resumed his covert survey of the people passing by, making sure to show all the signs of someone waiting for a friend. Normally he'd be doing this sort of work with a partner, but right then all he had was his handler's voice in his ear. Kishi, the person who was supposed to come with Nino, had apparently called in sick. As a secret agent, Nino didn't believe a word of it. He could only hope that Kishi's supposed sickness was some sort of urgent mission elsewhere and not an injury on the job or, even worse, discovery as a double agent.

"Nino," Sho's voice came urgently from his earpiece. "Be alert. There's a blocking attempt on our connection, so they must be close. If they bl--" The words cut off abruptly into eerie silence.

From long practice, Nino didn't react outwardly. He kept swinging his paper bag of baked goods at his side like he was getting impatient waiting for his totally normal and not at all spy-related rendezvous. He could do this without a handler until Sho got back online, but he'd have to be careful. The most important thing was not to be recognized as an enemy.

He wasn't here to stop anything, only to gather information--how many were involved in moving the weapon, what did they look like, which train did they get on, and whatever else he could glean from as much conversation as he could position himself to overhear. But this was a group that had escalated in the past year from being a bunch of off-putting xenophobic assholes to full-on aspiring terrorists. Nino's job was to make it so that their more ambitious exploits never saw the light of day, but if they knew who he was and who he worked for, not only would it make his work nearly impossible to do, his life would be in immediate danger. It had only been three weeks since the agency had recovered the body dumped in a nearby river--the body of Nino's former coworker, Takeda, who'd been sent to infiltrate the group itself.

Nino enjoyed his job well enough, but he wasn't looking to die for it.

It was a struggle not to move, because his instinct insisted that moving was the way to find his target more quickly, but his mind overruled that urge. The best way not to miss them going by was to stay in one place.

With his gaze wandering as naturally as he could make it, he managed to fit in a glance to check on the person upon whom he'd graciously bestowed a wink.

He found himself _still_ the object of attention. Those dark eyes looked a little less sleepy, now, and when it was noticed that Nino was paying attention again, the stranger stood up a little straighter like he was getting ready for something important before sending Nino a return wink.

This was already a lot for Nino to handle (he really was being stared at, the guy really had seen his wink, and apparently Nino wasn't the only one feeling saucy), but then a hand came up to that soft mouth and Nino watched in disbelief as the stranger blew him a kiss.

It wasn't so much the blown kiss as the way he did it. It looked like something that the guy was tacking onto the wink as a flirting escalation, but it also looked like something he'd maybe never done before. The motion was small, and his expression was blank, and afterwards he actually covered up his face with that hand as if to hide from Nino's disbelieving gaze.

Nino blinked back to reality, relegating the flirty stranger to the back burner of his mind. He was here with a job. Sho thought the enemy agents were close. He had to focus. He was looking for a small group with at least one large bag and a general aura of bigotry. If that wasn't enough, Takeda had managed to pass over rough sketches of a few of the main members before he'd been killed, but Nino wasn't planning to rely on that overmuch. Staring too long at any one person's face was not only a way to get caught, it usually meant missing out on fifteen other people walking by.

But acting out his role while scanning the crowd wasn't enough to fully occupy Nino's brain, so the backburnered oddball came back into his consciousness quickly. Should he respond? How was he supposed to respond to something like that?

Wait. In the farthest stream of people from Nino there was a clump of men walking closely together with purpose. Nino looked away from them, then let his gaze slide back as if he were looking at the neon of the bookstore sign instead. He spotted the large black bag in one of the men's hands, then got a clear glimpse of one of the faces--it matched Takeda's sketch of the group's leader.

Nino held his ground and kept his breathing steady. He didn't give the men another look, just let them go by as he rustled around in his bakery bag like he was picking out what to eat first.

In his peripheral vision, something moved on the same trajectory as the men had. Nino looked up through his eyelashes, still rummaging in the bag, and saw the guy who'd been loitering in front of the bookstore now walking after the wannabe terrorists. Nino froze.

He watched with horror as the stranger trotted along like he was hoping to make the next train and managed to knock right into the man with the large bag that Nino was banking on holding _something_ meant to kill or maim a whole lot of people. The bag fell to the ground, and one of the men shouted, but his flirty stranger just bowed repeatedly and made a lot of apologetic hand-flapping motions before crouching down to pick up the bag and offer it back to the person he'd bumped into. Except he didn't pick it up, because someone behind him knocked into _him_ and sent him sprawling over the large black bag he'd knocked from the hands of a terrorist.

Nino started walking. The murderous rage on the face of the nationalist goons was enough to let him know the stranger wasn't their accomplice, and his absolute incompetence made it clear he wasn't a fellow agent, either. What he was, Nino knew with every flail of the stranger's limbs trying to get off the weapons bag, was in trouble. Just because Nino was aware the guy was a civilian didn't mean the terrorist group would be so trusting, and even if they were on that point, the way practically the entire bag had been thoroughly groped by now could inspire even a less violent organization to action.

Nino didn't want to die on the job, but he had to try to stop this idiot from getting himself killed. He had about thirty seconds while walking swiftly to come up with a plan, and despite his usual confidence in himself he was dismally aware that it was a bad one as he came right up to the enemy targets and smiled cheesily.

"Darling!" he said, half-sweet, half-scolding. "You are causing quite the ruckus, and you _know_ I told you we were meeting in front of the bakery."

The nearest goon looked at him with barely any lessening of overt malignant intent. Nino, pretending blithe ignorance of how this person was giving off waves like he'd happily get his hands around Nino's throat, heaved the flailing stranger up and off the bag and hurriedly moved in for a smacking kiss on the lips.

"Late for our anniversary," he said, letting himself look pouty for a moment before leaning in and kissing the stranger again, a little longer this time. He should probably get his 'boyfriend' to apologize to the terrorists, to be believable, but he was completely unwilling to put off fleeing from them for another moment. At least his assumption that xenophobic bigots were also homophobic seemed to be paying off, judging by the disgusted looks he was seeing from the group he was about to flee.

The stranger he'd just kissed, twice, looked at him in a stupor, and when Nino grabbed his hand and hauled him off while saying loudly and with cloying fondness, "If we don't hurry we'll miss our reservation!" there wasn't the slightest resistance.

~

Nino sat at the hard plastic table and tried to think. He'd gotten the stranger with a death wish out of the station, but as they'd gotten through the outer door and Nino was tossing the baked goods into the nearest trashcan, Sho's connection had come back on. He'd immediately let Nino know that they were being followed. He guided Nino through the crowds, helping him lose the trailing enemy agent by ducking into a photo booth, then directed him to find somewhere better to hide within the next minute because not only was the first goon doubling back to find them, another was coming out of the station to help.

This was not how the stakeout was supposed to go.

"McDonald's for our anniversary?"

Nino remembered anew that on top of not having completed his mission, he was now sitting here with a civilian stranger he'd just kissed and basically kidnapped. How was he supposed to explain this?

Still, Nino remained good at multitasking, and while he sensed amusement in that quiet voice, perhaps even a challenge, he didn't hear any worry about their situation.

Instead of attempting to make excuses, Nino said, "Don't be snobby," and met the stranger's eyes with aplomb. "Just because we have money now doesn't mean we're too classy for McDonald's. After all--"

"Ah right, our first date!"

Nino stared at the deadpan expression and sparkling eyes of his fast food dinner companion. He had, in reality, just then, been going to say that they'd had their first date at McDonald's. If it turned out there were people who could read minds it was really going to be a detriment to Nino's professional stealth.

Sho was talking at him in his ear again about the terrorist group and their attempts to trace Nino's location by their communication link, so Nino said, "Eat your sandwich, darling," and shoved the tray of food at the bewildering stranger across from him.

"Cut it, then," he said quietly to Sho. "I'll find a place and call you later."

He half-expected his fake boyfriend to play along and grumble about Nino making plans to meet someone else during their anniversary date, but when he glanced over he found him munching on french fries and looking spaced out again.

Sho told him to be careful before the voice in Nino's ear was gone. Nino sighed and resigned himself to a weird work shift with only this civilian for company, assuming he could keep said civilian from dying.

"What's your name?"

The stranger twitched back to awareness of Nino. He had a little smudge of ketchup on the corner of his mouth. "Oh-chan?"

"Huh?" Nino pulled the tray back over to his side to grab his half of the food. "Are you asking me?"

"I think that's what you call me. My name's Ohno, so."

Nino took a bite of his burger while he stared at this Ohno person. He calculated they had perhaps fifteen minutes before they needed to be on the move again. It was not the most romantic of fake dates.

Ohno gestured at him to reciprocate. He'd just taken an ambitiously large bite of his chicken sandwich and Nino found his chipmunk cheeks unfairly cute when he was trying to concentrate on serious life-or-death business.

Still, giving Ohno his name seemed like the least he could do, especially considering how cool Ohno was being with this whole kissing/kidnapping situation.

"You call me Nino, like everybody else." He snorted when Ohno looked a little disappointed not to be special.

For a few minutes they ate in silence. Nino, though he couldn't understand it, was coming to the conclusion that in addition to being a flirty weirdo, Ohno was actually going to go with this situation without making Nino explain his actions. This made Nino think Ohno had no survival instincts at all, to so entrust himself to a complete stranger, but it certainly made Nino's job easier.

Therefore, instead of explaining that they were being hunted and needed to move to another location, Nino said casually, "I was thinking a movie. Do you like sci-fi?"

Ohno thought about this as he bunched up his sandwich wrapper. "Do people get eaten in it?"

"That sounds more like horror, Oh-chan. This is more spaceships and aliens." He paused a moment, then abridged, "Aliens who don't eat people."

"It sounds like I'd fall asleep," Ohno said seriously. "But for our anniversary."

Nino waited. Finally he asked, "For our anniversary, what?"

"I'll try to stay awake, because romance." The little grin on Ohno's face was terrible for Nino's self-control. He reached across and used his thumb to wipe that smudge of ketchup from Ohno's mouth.

When he made contact, Ohno went still, and somehow, without giving himself permission to do so, Nino found himself sliding the side of his thumb slowly along Ohno's lower lip before pulling his hand back.

He heard himself say, "We should get moving."

Ohno's eyes looked a little glazed, but he nodded and said, "We don't want to miss the movie. I hear it's good." He got up and started to clear their table.

Nino, who prided himself on his composure, realized he was pulling it together less quickly than a bumbling civilian. He stood hastily and turned to scan the restaurant. They'd sat in a back corner, out of view of the windows, which had been good for hiding. Now, however, he was really wishing for Sho to help them exit securely.

When Ohno came back from disposing of their tray, Nino was ready. They could joke around again when they were safe in the movie theater, but for the next few minutes taking the situation seriously was crucial. Nino hadn't wanted to think about it while walking through the station toward Ohno and the group around him, but by saving Ohno, he'd betrayed himself to the terrorist group as well, as a liability if not an enemy agent. If he and Ohno were found, it wouldn't just be Ohno in a big, potentially fatal mess.

"C'mere," he said in a low voice. He tugged Ohno in, the part of his mind that he'd shoved down under his professionalism thrilling at how easily Ohno moved with his touch, and started unbuttoning Ohno's shirt.

Ohno, as Nino had started to expect, didn't protest. If anything, he leaned into Nino, his hands finding Nino's shoulders as if for balance. There was no reason he needed that, but Nino didn't protest, either. Maybe he was as weird as Ohno.

Or maybe he just--

"Wear this," he said, all business. He crammed any personal liking-Ohno sorts of thoughts down even further and held out the baseball cap he'd had in his bag, putting Ohno's button-down shirt in its place.

After zipping the bag, he examined Ohno. With the baseball cap shading his face and a white t-shirt in place of the button-down, he wasn't immediately obvious as the same person who'd flopped on a terrorist's bag. It'd have to do.

"I tried to dress up nice," Ohno sighed, "but you're just after my body." He held out his bared arms as if Nino's intention had been to get Ohno to show some skin.

Nino huffed. He tried not to appreciate Ohno's arms, which were quite nice, actually, and--and when that failed, tried to at least not let it show on his face.

~

The trip to the movie theater, though it was five minutes at most, was hard on Nino's nerves. He couldn't keep watch on every angle, and he desperately missed Sho's eyes on the local security camera feeds and Sho's sharp brain picking out the best route. Ohno had grabbed for Nino's hand when they exited the restaurant, but their pursuers would be looking for a couple, so Nino just shook his head and led the way.

As he slid quickly through the crowd, he glanced back frequently to make sure Ohno was following. Each time, Ohno was there, and each time they made eye contact, Ohno smiled at him from under Nino's baseball cap like it was completely obvious that he would be there following this stranger who'd kissed him before knowing his name. He also kind of looked like he was happy just seeing Nino's face. It made Nino want to hold him down and ask hard questions like do you have any attachment to your bodily safety, weren't you ever taught not to go with strangers, do you think I could kiss you again?

Luckily, such foolish thoughts had little space to take over his brain when he was busy trying to keep from getting caught. He didn't know for sure that the enemy agents following them were nearby, so he had to assume they were. He found himself wishing for the comfort of Ohno's hand in his and told himself it was only because that would mean he didn't have to keep looking back to confirm Ohno was there.

When they got to the theater, Nino pulled out his wallet and asked for two tickets to the science fiction movie he'd been talking about, but Ohno interrupted.

"Not that one." He pointed up at the electronic movie listings. "That one. Um, the one with all the katakana?"

Nino stared at him. He really didn't have time to be charmed by a grownup Japanese person who balked at reading a string of katakana. In fact, he might literally not have time, since they could be spotted at any moment, so he said shortly, "Fine," and paid the clerk before shooing Ohno into the theater.

He checked behind them as they went through to their movie showing, but he didn't see anyone following. After the movie, if they got through it without incident, he thought it might be doable to try to get out of the area around Tokyo Station. Maybe their hiding wouldn't have to go on much longer.

That optimism made Nino suspicious, so he started making a plan in case he and Ohno had to stay on the lam after the movie. The nearest safe house wasn't nearly close enough. Maybe a love hotel...?

Somehow that thought had him looking at Ohno, _really_ looking.

He liked Ohno's messy black hair, his expressive eyebrows, his mischievous eyes. He also liked Ohno's sturdy shoulders, wiry arms, and the way his jeans clung to the strong muscles of his legs. He liked how Ohno was blank-faced when he made a joke himself but smiled openly for Nino. He liked how they were about the same size and how it seemed easier for both of them to move toward each other than away. He liked too much about Ohno too soon, and he wasn't the type to go along with a stranger and see what happened, at least not this far.

"Let's sit in the back," Ohno said, sounding comfortably oblivious to Nino's train of thought. "All the way in the back!"

Nino didn't care where they sat, so he just followed Ohno up the steps and sat beside him where Ohno picked.

"What kind of movie is this?" he asked.

Ohno shrugged. "Dunno."

Nino turned to look at him directly. "And we're seeing it because...? I actually wanted to see the other one!"

Ohno frowned, then shrugged again. "Yeah but, but this one had only one showing."

"And what, you felt bad for it?"

Ohno didn't say anything for a moment. Nino worried that he'd been too sharp, mocked too much, but then Ohno smiled. He looked around the theater, his smile widening, and then he reached over and took Nino's hand.

Nino stared at their hands together. It felt really good--which wasn't the point! The point was--oh.

He understood what Ohno had been going for just before Ohno mumbled, "I thought we might have the place to ourselves."

Nino should've pulled his hand away, but didn't. He should've been researching the nearest safe house or even love hotel, but he put it off, because he didn't want to lose Ohno's hand in his. He looked away from Ohno up to the screen. He felt compromised.

Wait, was he being compromised?! There was no way, no way, but if Ohno were an enemy agent, he'd certainly wormed his way into Nino's affections skillfully.

But Nino didn't think anyone was that good. No one could be so thoroughly _Ohno_ without it being real, he felt instinctively.

He was thus nearly entirely joking when he said over the sound of the previews starting, "Oh-chan, are you trying to seduce me?"

When Ohno didn't answer, Nino turned to look at him again. Ohno wasn't smiling now.

Except, and Nino really shouldn't know this about Ohno when he'd only met him today, he kind of thought Ohno was smiling, just on the inside.

Nino watched Ohno's face and tried to breathe. He spent so much time in control that this day felt like the universe reminding him he was still a dumb human it could bat about as it pleased.

He demanded, "Well?" though he wasn't sure what he was even asking anymore.

Ohno shook his head solemnly. "I would never," he said, before leaning in to kiss Nino.

Like everything with Ohno, it should've been awkward but wasn't. In fact, it wasn't long before Nino stopped thinking about how it should've been weird to kiss this stranger, and was instead completely invested in the actual act of kissing him.

Their first two kisses had been brief, and Nino's mind had been full of the panic of trying to save Ohno from the terrorist group. It was hard to get a sense of how it felt to kiss someone in a situation like that. But now, in an empty theater, just the two of them in a dark space, albeit with overly loud action movie preview sounds, there was no buffer between Nino and Ohno.

This time, Ohno was kissing him, too. His hands had found Nino's jaw so he could tilt him into just the right angle, and there was no hesitation as he deepened the kiss, tongue touching Nino's as Nino emitted an embarrassing little gasp. He'd been joking about Ohno's seduction, but now, clutching Ohno's shoulders and kissing him back as best he could, he took back all the thoughts about Ohno going along too easily with a stranger. Right then, Nino would've gone along with anything Ohno wanted without hesitation.

"Ah," Ohno said against Nino's mouth. Nino, despite himself, made a needy noise and tried to pull Ohno back into their kiss. He pressed kisses against Ohno's lips, and his heart squeezed tight as Ohno laughed.

"The movie's starting," Ohno explained, patting Nino's leg. Nino noticed that he left his hand there afterward, but it wasn't enough. Ohno didn't even know what movie this was, so really they should just keep--

With a snap, Nino came back to himself. Right, this was no time to get lost in kissing, even someone as fun to kiss as Ohno. He needed to plan their next move.

Still, he took Ohno's hand and slid it up his thigh a bit, just to show he had some say in what was going on. Ohno grinned at him, unprotesting, before turning back to the screen.

~

Nino didn't watch much of the movie. Mostly he was texting with Sho--it was against agency policy to use their work phones during missions, but this was an emergency and Nino needed information. Sho had called in backup, which was good news, but their boss had ruled it too risky to open up their comms again when they knew the enemy had taken steps to trace them. One of the agents who'd arrived to help reported that there was at least one enemy still combing the area, so Nino asked Sho for a list of the nearest love hotels. Sho had countered with the idea that while Sho's current location might be unsafe for Nino to come to, the backup agents had brought their own van, so Nino and Ohno should set up a meeting place and go there instead.

It was terrible how disappointed Nino was at this logical idea. However, his and Ohno's safety came before everything, even more time spent together, so Nino agreed readily. Sho set up the rendezvous point, one he would move toward as well, and specified a time based on the movie's running time and distance to travel.

The specified time wasn't so very far from right then, so Nino put his phone away and said to Ohno, "This part is boring." He had to say it with quite a lot of volume, because the music of the film was bone-thumpingly loud.

Ohno turned to blink at him slowly, eyes reflecting the light of the screen. "Really?"

Nino read his lips more than heard him, but something in his expression had Nino checking what was going on in the movie. He found a ferocious woman with a buzzcut and a mechanical arm hanging off the side of a monster truck during a breakneck race across the desert. As an additional clue, the music was ramping up in a way that had his pulse speeding despite him not even knowing what the plot of this movie was. It was clearly the climax.

Even so, Nino stuck his chin in the air stubbornly. He peeked from the corner of his eye and saw Ohno still looking at him, which was good. Nino nodded, ignoring the fact that the scene looked like the opposite of boring, and Ohno took his wrist and pulled.

When Ohno had Nino where he wanted him, Nino was on Ohno's lap, thighs across Ohno's, in prime position to lean down and kiss him. Ohno had both arms around Nino's waist, but when Nino actually did lean down, his eyes on Ohno's mouth, Ohno used one hand to take Nino's chin and point it back toward the screen. Apparently Ohno wasn't bored.

Nino was irritated for about a second before realizing Ohno not going along with him actually made him feel better. He liked Ohno even more to know that he could be stubborn, and above all, the way he'd chosen the movie, the way he'd been the one to initiate the kissing, all the ways Ohno had shown what he wanted and acted on it meant that Ohno wasn't just there because he was going along with Nino.

He was there because he wanted to be, watching the movie because he wanted to be, holding Nino because he wanted to be.

Nino felt very strongly that this was someone he wanted to protect. He was a person who avoided violence whenever possible, but the idea of some nationalist asshole laying a finger on Ohno made him feel like he would happily put some of his martial arts training to prolonged, pain-causing use.

But Nino also felt some less convenient emotions. Protection was easy--it was actually his job right then, so that instinct didn't need to be suppressed. The way Nino wanted to talk to Ohno, to hear about his life and what kind of person he was, that wasn't part of the job. How he felt when they were kissing wasn't something he could make professional. And Ohno... Ohno didn't even know what was going on. Ohno was there because he wanted to be, which was wonderful--but they weren't there on the same footing, because Nino knew things Ohno didn't, things he was deliberately withholding to make things easier on himself.

It was a strain, but Nino pulled out of Ohno's arms and moved back to his own seat. When Ohno gave him a worried look, Nino covered Ohno's hand on the armrest with his, then used his other hand to take Ohno's chin and point his face back to the screen. Ohno was smiling when Nino let go of his face, which was what Nino had wanted.

Nino didn't bother watching the end of the movie. He was thinking about how they were going to get to the rendezvous point safely, running scenarios and working out the best responses to each. He was also, in the back of his mind, deciding what he'd say to Ohno when the ear-blasting rock music finally stopped.

~

When the movie was over and the soundtrack over the credits had finally settled down to a volume that allowed conversation, Nino was ready.

"Oh-chan, listen, this has to be quick but--"

"I liked that movie," Ohno said happily. "We should watch it again sometime. You should watch it next time, too. Hey, wanna--"

"Oh-chan," Nino said, exasperated. "Listen up. In a couple of minutes we need to move, and quickly, to get to the rendezvous point. It's important for your safety that you stay close to me and don't draw attention to yourself."

Ohno nodded. "Okay."

Just this once, Nino really wished Ohno would ask him questions. It was easier to answer questions than to breach the subject himself.

Still, it was important. "When I kissed you in the station, I was trying to distract those scary guys you were pissing off so I could get you out of there. This whole time, I've been trying to hide you from them, because if they find you--"

"Us," Ohno interrupted. "Both of us, right? Also, the kissing was good. We should do that again too!"

Nino started with some heat, "Oh-chan, I'm a--"

But he cut himself off. He needed to explain some things to Ohno, but security wasn't a joke. His colleagues' lives depended on his discretion, every day.

The music suddenly dropped away fully, leaving them in the quiet dark together. Nino tried to remember what he'd been planning to say. For someone so often easygoing, Ohno was hard to predict.

"Yeah," Ohno said, softly now. "Me too."

"You too what," Nino said with frustration. "I haven't even... Wait, you too, what? What?"

"We met at the office one time, you don't remember?" Ohno asked, starting to look confused himself. "I came to the meeting about the, uhhhh, the thing that was in the bag, but they didn't like my plan and I left early."

Nino wracked his brain. His brain, unhelpfully, returned a series of question marks and exclamation points.

"Wait," Ohno said. He was frowning, now, and he pulled his hand away from Nino's. "You didn't remember? Then... you didn't think this was real?"

"What do you mean, real?" Nino asked, trying to buy some time to think, but Ohno's frown only deepened. Nino couldn't remember seeing Ohno at the meeting, any meeting, or ever, before today. Ohno was an agent? A coworker? What did he mean, real?

"We should go," Ohno said tightly.

Nino noticed that despite his words, Ohno wasn't moving. It was a chance, a chance to make things right, somehow, except Nino didn't understand what was going on and wasn't catching up fast enough.

After a painful silence, Ohno started to stand up.

Nino caught his wrist and pulled him back down. "Please," he said, not sure what he was going to say. "Ask me again."

"You don't remember?" Ohno said. He extricated himself from Nino's grasp and crossed his arms across his chest.

"Not that," Nino said. He ran his hands through his hair, desperate to fix this before they had to go. There was barely enough time to get to the van without hurrying in a way that would draw people's eyes--no matter what was going on with him and Ohno, they had to get moving soon.

Ohno was silent, but then he huffed impatiently. "This wasn't real to you?"

That was the question Nino wanted. Out of all the things going on right then, this one thing was something Nino knew the answer to, though it was hard to say it out loud.

"It was," Nino blurted, not letting himself think about it. "It _is._ This is all messed up but won't you, couldn't we, fuck, we have to go, Oh-chan, fuck."

Ohno just looked at him a moment, and Nino forced himself to wait. Ohno was a fellow agent. Nino didn't need to push him around to keep him safe.

Nino held still, letting Ohno look at him, letting Ohno think. He wanted to make a joke, or leave before Ohno could answer, but he was a spy, and goddammit, spies were supposed to be brave.

"Ahhhh," Ohno said at last, and Nino's heart banged around in his chest at the sound of Ohno's amusement. That was good? Or bad. Nino hoped Ohno would use words that made it clear, because obviously Nino was not doing a good job of reading this whole situation. "Now I want to kiss you again, but we really do have to go." After a beat, he added mischievously, " _Fuck._ "

He offered Nino his hand, and Nino took it automatically. He still didn't know what was going on but things seemed a little less terrible than they had just a minute ago. "Time to focus," he said to himself, thinking again of all the scenarios where their trip to the van went wrong. It didn't help that part of his mind was taken up with the knowledge that Ohno still wanted to kiss him, but he couldn't let it distract him.

"Time to focus," Ohno agreed. "This time we're holding hands--I don't want to lose you in the crowd."

"Okay," Nino said. It was worth the extra risk of being spotted in order not to have to check on each other all the time. "Then..."

"Let's go."

When they were out into the main part of the theater, Ohno started chatting naturally about the movie, and Nino thought again, _he's an agent._ Even after a hard conversation, if one could label Nino's meager attempt at words as holding up his side of a conversation, now that they were in public again he was all easy civilian, going with the flow Ohno.

Somehow being impressed helped. Nino put his tangled feelings aside and focused on his job. He noted that having Ohno's hand in his, the certainty Ohno was right by his side, only made it easier to concentrate, but didn't let himself think about it past that. He wanted both of them to get to the rendezvous and to safety in time.

Even so, Nino's mind did tend toward multitasking. Part of him was already figuring out a way to make sure this wasn't the last time he saw Ohno.

~

Nino had a lot of things figured out by the time he saw Ohno again.

For one thing, Kishi-kun really had been sick, thank goodness, and now Nino didn't have to send flowers (in the case of injury) or plan dramatic revenge (in the case of betrayal).

Secondly, his boss, Sakamoto, had decided to assign Nino a partner. This news had come at the end of a lengthy, not entirely comfortable debrief in which Nino had to explain a lot of things he would have preferred to gloss over. Sakamoto wasn't a person on whom to attempt glossing over when he wanted facts. Nino was used to working alone, only occasionally teaming up with other solo agents or duos, and he liked being in the field with just Sho in his ear. But he was willing to try it, since Sakamoto seemed to think he had potential, and he gave his agreement to the plan with one condition.

Finally, Ohno _was_ an agent, _was_ a coworker, and, Nino had learned from Sho even before Sakamoto went on a tirade about it during the debrief, had definitely not been meant to be there that day in Tokyo Station. Ohno worked in another cohort of the agency, and Nino was cursing his profession's instinct to separate anyone who could be separated for security reasons because he could have known Ohno for ages. He'd been mentored as a new agent by Takeda, and even after Ohno became a full-fledged member of the agency they'd been close. Ohno had wanted to move more aggressively on the nationalist group that had killed Takeda, but the head of Nino's cohort, namely Sakamoto, had nixed the idea in favor of caution, not wanting to put civilians in danger. Ohno, clearly, had done it anyway--he'd placed a bug on the weapons bag in the middle of the station before being whisked away by Nino, and that bug had led the agency, the very next day, to the group's headquarters. Ohno should've been suspended, Sakamoto had growled, but it was hard to suspend someone who'd made it possible to take down a group of terrorists before they even got to the terror. Neither Nino nor Ohno had been involved in the final mission, but Nino didn't begrudge it, being wholeheartedly glad the world was the tiniest bit safer than two days previously.

And then, three days after kissing a flirty stranger, Nino found himself back in Tokyo Station.

After getting to the rendezvous point, he hadn't gotten a chance to talk to Ohno alone. They worked in separate parts of the agency, and it wasn't like theirs was a job that had a staff directory. Nino had thought about asking Sho, or even Sakamoto, but he thought he'd try to figure out a way on his own, first. Even in their one day of knowing each other, there had been times it was like they could read each other's minds, so it didn't seem impossible that Ohno would know where to meet Nino, if he wanted to.

When he'd walked the few minutes to his final destination and received his order, he sat down at the hard plastic table with his tray of food for two. The optimism, of course, made him suspicious, and he started to plan ways he could save the rest of the food for later if Ohno didn't come.

Still, sometimes optimism was warranted. A slightly mumbling voice came from behind him: "What's the secret password?"

"Sit down already," Nino crabbed, turning just enough to grab Ohno's hand and steer him over to the same seat he'd occupied the day they'd met.

Ohno didn't smile, but Nino thought he looked happy. Nino could relate, because Ohno's gross mind-reading had worked again and they were there, together.

"Are you here for work?" Ohno asked. He leaned in and aimed his voice toward Nino's ear. "Hi Sho-kun!" Even in the limited time and even more limited interaction while moving in the van to the agency, Ohno had managed to take to Sho quite a lot. Nino found it charming.

"If I were, why would you be here? After all, my boss wanted me to partner up with Satoko-san, but I said no, you know." Nino took a bite of his burger, pleased with having slipped that in there before any real conversation got going.

"You said no?" Ohno asked, abruptly grumpy. "I would've liked it." He didn't even bother acknowledging his spy persona of Satoko--the sleek-haired agent in the stylish dress who'd briefly graced the work meeting Ohno had said he'd attended. Nino was still kicking himself for not realizing who Ohno was, but at the time it had been obvious that Sakamoto wasn't going to go with Satoko's plan. Nino hadn't bothered paying close attention.

"I don't mix business with pleasure," Nino said loftily, then shoved a handful of fries in his mouth to make Ohno laugh. Sadly, Ohno was too distracted to appreciate the gesture.

"Business? Pleasure?"

Nino chewed, swallowed, and answered with as much patience as he could muster. "Business is work, right? Like how you're Satoko at work and Satoshi at home. Why did you show up as Satoshi during the stakeout, anyway?"

"It was on my private time," Ohno said. He made a face. "Jun-chan was really mad I went alone. I told him Sho-kun was in your ear but it didn't seem to make him feel better... He said he'd switch agents to Aiba-chan and when I said that was okay he just got more mad."

Nino decided to ignore all of this for now, because they were mid-explanation and Ohno still wasn't getting it. "So business is work, and pleasure is," he started, then paused, wishing he'd thought this line out. He settled on saying, "We should date. I mean, we already have an anniversary and everything."

"Pleasure is dating?"

Since Ohno was tilting his head and being adorably confused, Nino exhaled gustily and resigned himself to emotional intimacy. After all, Ohno had been patient with him before, letting Nino fix it even through his bewildered verbal garbage.

He made sure to look Ohno in the eye and _not_ make it a joke. "Work is work. But what we have, I want it to be real."

"Work isn't real," Ohno said like he was agreeing, but when Nino stared at him in disbelief at this misinterpretation, Ohno laughed like Nino was the adorable one. "I like it. I like you. We should date: you have good ideas. Except meeting here was less good because I'm not kissing _anyone_ in McDonald's."

"You are not wrong," Nino said. He pushed the tray across the table. "Eat your food, Oh-chan."

Possibly Nino was an optimist after all, because he'd come prepared. His heart was racing absurdly, because Ohno liked him, and his palms were sweaty, because they were going to date, for real. Nino focused on getting the paper out of his bag, which shouldn't have taken any amount of concentration but that was the state he was in with all this liking Ohno stuff.

"Here," he said. He slid the tray away from Ohno, grinning at Ohno's pout, then put the paper in front of him instead. "I made a list of safe places."

Ohno peered at the list, one hand reaching out to grab a few more fries as he processed.

Nino got impatient. He pointed toward the bottom of the page. "These ones are the safe places where we can kiss. Okay?" He hadn't meant to make it a question, and now he felt awkward. Maybe this was weird. He'd thought that Ohno would like it.

Ohno pulled the tray back to his side of the table, setting the paper in front of Nino. "That one," he said decisively, and he stabbed a finger toward one of the entries at the bottom of the page.

Oh, Nino liked it when Ohno was decisive, especially when it was about getting to kiss Nino.

"But that one first," Ohno added, pointing now to the non-kissing locations at the top of the page. "Jun-chan's still mad and Aiba-chan says it'll help if I get him a present."

Nino squinted at the place he'd indicated. "An antique mall?" He'd mostly made the list for the bottom part, because ever since Sho had denied him the pleasure of Ohno in a love hotel, Nino had been wanting to make that happen. It would be wonderful whether he and Ohno just kissed for their whole time allotment or did other stuff and either way definitely didn't have any entertainment options that would distract Ohno from Nino. Nino had filled in the ones at the top with good intentions, figuring they might want somewhere to go before the love hotel, and the antique mall was one he must have added once everywhere he actually had interest in going had been used up.

"A shoe tree," Ohno said. He sounded like he was unconsciously mimicking this Aiba person's voice. "One that smells good?"

Nino laughed. "Are you asking me?"

"That's what I'm supposed to get," Ohno answered, smiling back at Nino. "Will you go with me?"

Nino didn't pretend to think about it, just answered honestly, "I'd love to." An antique mall sounded boring, but being with Ohno wouldn't be.

"Today's our three-day anniversary," Ohno said around a bite of chicken sandwich.

Nino guessed the planning talk was over, but he rolled with it. "And you're talking with food in your mouth, so romantic."

Ohno swallowed pointedly, but when he said, "Maybe they'll give us a discount at the hotel," he sounded, if Nino wasn't projecting, like he was daydreaming about kissing Nino again.

Nino approved of this, but then Ohno said, "Like two hours for the price of one! We could even watch a--"

"We're not watching a movie, dammit, Oh-chan!" Nino said involuntarily, but he saw that Ohno was grinning at him. "Ugh, Oh-chan, I don't know why you have to play with my tender emotions on this, our three-day anniversary."

"No movies," Ohno said, pacifying. "Just you and me, and also a bed. Huh..."

Ohno was starting to look distracted by this idea, and Nino couldn't blame him, but if they couldn't kiss in a McDonald's, it was better to cut this line of thought off now. "Don't forget the shoe tree. Maybe we'll be able to smell it the whole time!"

Ohno nodded like this was precisely the goal of going to the antique mall and buying a smelly shoe tree. He noticed he still had a sandwich in his hand and bit into it with a lingering air of, well, probably thinking about doing dirty things with Nino.

Nino couldn't stand it. He looked around, ascertaining there was no one else in their rather unpopular back corner of McDonald's. When Ohno was opening his mouth for another bite, Nino leaned over the table and put his face right up to Ohno's in a silent appeal.

He expected Ohno's eyes to dart around to confirm no one was around, like Nino had, but Ohno just followed Nino's lead. He put down the sandwich and leaned in to kiss Nino, his hand coming up to cradle the back of Nino's neck.

"Oh-chan," Nino mumbled against Ohno's mouth. His knees felt weak, but he could neither move away from Ohno, because _Ohno_ , nor put off what he was about to say. "Did you just get mayo on my neck?"

"Shh," Ohno said, deadpan but for the laugh in his eyes. "Go with it."

Nino couldn't help it: he kissed Ohno again. This sort of thing in a McDonald's hadn't been one of his goals for the day, but it was the romantic location of their first date, after all.


End file.
